Everyday Practices of Adaptation in the Modern Arctic

Much of the current research on climate change adaptation in the Arctic focuses on the impacts and consequences of climate change for indigenous and local communities and their livelihoods. Concepts such as adaptive capacity, resilience and vulnerability dominate the academic debates which deal with the administrative, legal, economic and political activators and barriers to local action of adaptation. We have taken a different approach, one that relies on situated practices to manage and adapt to difficult, increasingly uncertain and changing weather conditions in everyday life. First, we explore practices of adaptation in tourism, agriculture and reindeer herding as well as in city administration, and, second, discuss adaptive practices in everyday mobility by different means (cars, snowmobiles, bikes and on foot). The multisite data of our case studies comes from interviews, participant observation and different modes of ethnography, which enables us to investigate small-scale adaptive adjustments to everyday routines of work and mobility. This will help us share insights into everyday life, work and mobility in Finnish Lapland today.